Parishioners may be aware that the Diocesan Education Service has updated its model Admission Policies to bring it in line with the National Catholic Education Service and to ensure compliance with the mandatory School Admission Code which all Admission Authorities are legally required to follow. Our schools will still prioritise Catholic applicants and a certificate of Baptism will still be used to identify this. As schools adopt these new models, the requirement to seek a parish priest’s signature on the Supplementary Information Forms' (SIFs) will be removed. However, in any case where a school is oversubscribed with Catholic applicants, it will be necessary to rank further the Catholic applicants. To do this a 'Certificate of Catholic Practice' (CCP) will be used in which the local priest(s) will affirm that 'this child and his/her family are known to me and, to the best of my knowledge and belief, the child is from a practising Catholic family'. (The Guidance from the Diocese, following the National Catholic Education Service model, states that for the purposes of the Certificate of Catholic Practice, a person is a practising Catholic if they observe the Church’s precept of attending Mass on Sundays and holidays of obligation.) This certificate will be needed for those applying from this autumn for a place at St Andrew’s for Admission in September 2027, and going forward. Initially, in moving to a new system, the onus will be on parish clergy to make a judgement on these matters. However, Deanery clergy and the Diocesan Education Service are working on a form for use in coming years whereby families can indicate and celebrate their participation at Mass; indeed families should regard the change as a reminder of the need to be engaged with the life of the local Church, that is, the parish – not simply because they desire a school place for their child but because it is first and foremost their faith community, because worshipping God and being fed by Christ in word and Sacrament is what we are about and because, as children of God, families want their children to be supported in their journey of faith. All clergy are committed to supporting parishioners in the difficult task of parenting and the joyful task of sharing faith and are not oblivious to the challenges that families face. Please trust them in this new situation - but please do not put them in the awkward position of being asked to provide a certificate for someone they have hardly ever seen before. More comprehensive details can be found on the parish and St. Joseph’s School web sites and the bright yellow coloured sheet on the shelf by the side entrance of the church.
PUBLIC EXAMS:- are underway! GCSE, A.s & A levels, as well as the differing university exams. These can therefore be anxious and tense times, both for those undertaking exams and for their families and friends, so, even if you are not directly involved in such matters, please do keep those concerned in your prayers at this time, that there be ‘level heads’ patients, discipline, and understanding. Very many thanks.
The disability group have set up a petition requesting that MPs do not cave to the pressure of bringing back the ‘Assisted Dying Bill’ tabled by Kim Leadbeater but which ‘fell due to a lack of time’. You can find the petition and contact your MP at:- Tell your MP to help stop the assisted dying Bill from returning Many thanks.
GIFT AID ENVELOPES 2026/2027 :- As always, our grateful thanks to all those who are able to make financial contribution to the parish via the ‘Gift Aid’ scheme. For those who do so via the envelope system, we are pleased to tell you the envelopes for this tax year 26/27 are available in the sacristy, please collect your box with your name on a printed label on it at the earliest opportunity. Very many thanks. Gift Aid and the ‘card machines ’:- Just a reminder that parish and diocesan donations via the card machine can be ‘Gift Aided’ if the card has been registered on one of the machines for Gift Aid, with the proviso that you, the donor, use the same ‘bank card’ each time to make any such donation. We will advise in the next couple of weeks of someone being available to assist and help / show individuals wishing to make ‘Gift Aided’ contributions in this way. That said, we advise that ‘third party donations’ such as CAFOD where Gift Aid is encouraged, would require individuals to put their details on the envelopes provided by the charity and indicate ‘donation via card payment’, with the amount specified; this will then be forwarded to the particular charity. Very many thanks for your understanding.
St Joseph's School is seeking one more Foundation Governors to support the school in its work. This is a fantastic way to volunteer in the community and to apply your skills and experience to help the school improve and flourish. Please contact the school office at: office@stjosephs-dorking.surrey.sch.uk to find out more, or drop in to the school any time!
“Last year, we finished with 7 colonies and as the weather got colder we left them with plenty of food to help sustain them during the winter. Sadly, when the weather was warm enough to start up inspections for this season there was only one colony left. However, it went from strength to strength and a couple of weeks later, we split it into 3 colonies. We have also had 3 swarms and split the first one again, so now we are back up to 7 colonies. It is a fascinating hobby and even if you don’t have time to come weekly, you might just like to come and have a look. If you like the idea then come when you can. We have two spare bee suits. If you would like to come, then phone Tommy on 07941 850036.”
Following the fall of the Leadbeater assisted suicide Bill, fresh bids to introduce an assisted dying law in England and Wales are anticipated. Any new law would likely pressure NHS staff to be involved in some way and offer even less protection to institutions like hospices. You can help protect healthcare workers and hospices by signing the Bios Centre online petition. It calls on Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, to protect conscientious objection rights for religious and personal beliefs. Sign the petition at https://bioscentre.org/petition-on-conscience-protection/ or scan this QR code with your smartphone.
“The House of Commons Private Members’ Bill ballot has now taken place, and your MP needs to hear from you again. A number of the 20 MPs drawn in this morning’s ballot voted for the assisted suicide Bill at Third Reading last year. They are now coming under considerable pressure from assisted suicide campaigners, led by Kim Leadbeater MP, to bring back her dangerous Bill. Please take 30 seconds now to send your MP a new email with important new polling that every MP needs to see, whether or not they were drawn in the ballot. New polling from Whitestone Insight has been released following the ballot, and is the largest public poll conducted on assisted suicide since the Leadbeater assisted suicide Bill was introduced. The polling includes seat-by-seat results that show there is no local mandate in your constituency for MPs to revive Kim Leadbeater’s failed assisted suicide Bill and bypass the House of Lords to push it into law. This needs to get in front of your MP as soon as possible, so they can see what people in your constituency think. The Other Half, who commissioned the polling, has launched an easy tool that lets you email your MP with the poll results for your constituency and ask them to oppose the Bill being brought back. Please take 30 seconds now to contact your MP, using the simple tool. ” Write to your MP - Stop the assisted dying bill being brought back
Our prayers and congratulations to the young people who were Confirmed recently at St. Joseph’s, Epsom:- Joe, Maks, Nadia, Joshua, Amelia, Sofia, Mark, Adam, Amelia and Karol. We pray they will deepen in their love of God, mature in their faith and be true witnesses of Christ in the world, all the days of their lives.
The dawn crow of the cockerel in the Passion Narrative: - (Part 2) The Midrash, about King Solomon who desires to build the Temple, the shamir and the Hoopoe begins by announcing that King Solomon got himself a male and female demon (derived from shiddah and shiddot which could mean ‘singers’ (see Jerusalem Bible version) but is obscure enough, according to the footnote, to possibly mean demons) who, in turn, eventually got a hold of the king of the demons, Ashmedai, who pointed King Solomon in the direction of the hoopoe, the guardian of the ‘shamir’. The text continues:- “Solomon replied, “I want nothing at all that is yours. But because I desire to build the Temple, I need the shamir.” Ashmedai (the king of demons) said to him. “ The shamir was not placed in my charge but given to the prince of the sea, and he gave sole charge of it to the wild cock, (the hoopoe) who is entrusted with it on oath. Do you know what he does with it? He takes it to an uninhabited mountain and sets it down upon a peak, and the mountain splits asunder. Then the wild cock gathers seeds of trees and scatters them in the split, which consequently attracts settlers .” (Hence the Aramai Targum calls the wild cock the “splitter of mountains.”)” (See:- “The Book of Legends Sefer Ha-Aggadah” No. 122 P. 130 Ed. Hayim Nahman Ravnitzky, Schocken Books, New York, 1992) If, in Judaism at the time of our Lord, the cockerel announces the new day and the call to first prayers, the clearing by the priestly caste of the ashes of the previous days sacrificial oblations in the Temple as preparation for sacrifices of the new day, and indeed, the cockerel is recognised as the one who has charge of the shamir then surely, we can equate the shamir with our Lord and the wood of the cross! The cross upon which our Lord was nailed, would have been erected in the rock, that is, it would have split the rock, and so we could say that symbolically, Christ is indeed the shamir who ‘attracts settlers’, the new Covenant, which is the Church, and therefore it is no surprise, the shamir disappeared after the building of the Second Temple, because Christ is the shamir, the tool required to build the (new) Temple, announced by the cockerel on Good Friday morning. When, as the Gospel recounts our Lord died upon the cross, the veil of the Temple was torn from top to bottom (Mk 15:37, Matt 27:51) and thus the Covenant of Sinai is superseded, the New and Everlasting Covenant (of the Church) is established through the Resurrection of Jesus and the institution of the Ministerial priesthood and the Holy Eucharist at the Last Supper; these surely all point to Jesus as being the shamir. The cock crow on that Good Friday would see our Lord died upon the Cross and again, as the Gospel relates, there was an earthquake and the ground was split open and the souls of many rose from the dead (Matt 27:51). Is it that Christ is the shamir, the tool who enables the new temple to be built, the ‘keystone’ over which many would stumble, but upon whom, the Church, the New Temple or Tabernacle is built? In which case, the dawn crow of the cockerel, the splitter of stone, if the Gospel narrative references the Midrash, is of greater significance than we may think!